Relative Strangeness
by turbomagnus
Summary: The Captains of Enterprise and Excelsior are forced to deal with the aftermath of a curious encounter... out of Sulu's past.


Author's Note: The 365 Project is an experimental _multi-fandom_ project to write and post at least one short every day for the next year, not including my semi-regular bi-weekly updates. For more details, see the relevent section in my profile. This is The 365 Project, 5 August.

In the immortal words of Samuel L. Clemens... "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR."

Disclaimer: "Love Hina" is the creation and property of Ken Akamatsu and Star Trek and all associated characters and situations are the property of CBS studios, used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

Despite also being a Love Hina/Star Trek cross, this is completely unrelated to "The Urashima Effect". Maybe 'cross' is the wrong word, I don't know. It's a story that refers to events that are never shown and tries to let the reader figure out what's happened, and the Love Hina character never actually appear...

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"Relative Strangeness"

By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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It was roughly two weeks since the Khitomer Conference and the Captain and crew of the U.S.S._ Enterprise _NCC-1701-A still hadn't seen fit to report for the ship's decommissioning. Some of the Admiralty, in hindsight, had begun to consider the orders stating 'at your discretion' to have been a mistake. In those two weeks, the _Enterprise_ and fellow starship U.S.S._ Excelsior_ NCC-2000- as well as one of _Excelsior_'s sister-ships, the U.S.S. _Bill of Rights_ NCC-2010 - had managed to get themselves involved in more incidents than most people would have considered possible; statisticians would just sigh and make comments about 'The _Enterprise_ Effect' trying to get as much out of the second ship to bare the name as it could before it was decomissioned. With the latest crisis dealt with, the captains of _Enterprise_ and _Excelsior _were in conference over their respective main viewers.

"I suggest we recommend to Starfleet Command..." Captain Sulu Hikaru of _Excelsior_ made the observation, "That all equipment for use in starships produced in Molmol be put under additional examination before any of it is installed... especially transporter components."

Captain Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott, the _Enterprise_'s Chief Engineer sighed, "Aye, it'll take me weeks to tear down every transporter on this ship and rewire the blasted things so this never happens again... If Emory Erickson were still alive, I'd have a few choice words for him over all the trouble that blasted invention of his has caused us over the years; Mirror universes, splitting the Captain, now this mess... Starting to think maybe the Doctor has the right idea of avoiding the damn things..."

Commander Leonard H. McCoy, known to those who had served with him for so many years often simply as 'Bones', threw his hands up in the air, "Finally, one of you sees the light! Sorry it just took thirty years to get though to anyone that getting your molecules scrambled all the time isn't the smartest idea..."

"I'm just glad we were able to see to it that our 'guests' got home safe and sound," Sulu remarked.

"Sulu," _Enterprise_'s famous - or infamous, depending on how one chose to look at his past, Captain James T. Kirk looked at the other Captain and frowned, "Why _were_ you so adamant about helping them get back to the twentieth century? They wouldn't have been the first people from the past to have started new lives in our time..."

Sulu smiled knowingly, "Because, Captain..." even if they were now of equal rank, he would always think of Jim Kirk as his 'Captain', "Not everything is what it seems."

McCoy looked at Sulu in annoyance, he hated cryptic answers, "Now just what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, Doctor, that _Sobo_ and _Sofu_ needed to go back, for their sakes... and for mine," Sulu answered.

"Sobo-whatsit?" McCoy demanded.

"_Sobo to Sofu_, Doctor," Commander Nyota Uhura cut in, "...Grandmother and Grandfather."

"Now wait one damned minute here," McCoy fumed, "I know we're all getting along in years, but last time I checked, Sulu, you weren't old enough for your grandparents to be from the twentieth century!"

"You're correct, Doctor," Sulu still had that smile on his face, "It's been some years and you may not remember, but you met my great-great-great grandfather once - in San Francisco... Nineteen-Eighty-Six."

"What about it?"

"Those were his wife's parents," Sulu answered, "_Sofu_ Akira married Urashima Reiko, their daughter, which makes them my four-times-great grandparents, Doctor."

"Just like how we gave the idea of transparent aluminum to the guy that was supposed to come up with it in the first place," McCoy rolled his eyes, "You want to know something? I don't care about the rest of you anymore; I'm looking _forward_ to retirement, I can spend the rest of my days fishing out by the lake, telling tall tales down at the local bait shop, and never have to see another damn temporal anomaly or predestination paradox again..."

Captain Spock raised an eyebrow at the rant, "Doctor..."

"What?" McCoy demanded.

"I believe the human expression is... 'Take a break'," Spock told him.

Kirk managed not to chuckle, "'Give it a rest', Spock, the saying is 'give it a rest'."

"Indeed," Spock replied.

"I'm not talking to you, you green-blood retirement ruiner," McCoy snorted, "I'd already have been a week at my cabin if you hadn't come up with that harebrained, cockamammy peace conference idea."

"Does this mean you take back my invitation to visit you?" Spock asked.

Kirk and Sulu shared a look of amusement.

"I'm sorry, Captain," Sulu informed his former commanding officer, "This is where _Excelsior_ has to leave you; we're due to start a two-month survey of planets in the Hromi Cluster. I guess this is... until next time, Captain Kirk."

"I understand," Kirk wasn't one for 'goodbye' either, "Good luck and Godspeed, Captain Sulu. Mister Chekov, set a course for Earth; we've ensured the past will create the present, now it seems the time has come for us to face the future..."


End file.
